Amazon: Pay more for Kindle Fire, smoke ads from slabs

Amazon, in a surprise U-turn, has decided to start selling a more expensive version of its Kindle Fire model that will not stalk its customers with ads.

The giant online retailer said over the weekend that it had applied the switcheroo to its pricing policy. This is after it initially launched its Kindle Fire tablets with static ads that it dubbed "special offers", which quickly pissed off punters who wanted the option of disabling the function.

Customers will now have to pay $15 more to get their hands on an ads-free version of the slab.

An Amazon spokesman told Reuters:

With Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD there will be a special offer opt-out option for $15. We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We're happy to offer customers the choice.

The move, though, will undoubtedly be appreciated by some who were rightly concerned about the massive privacy-lite web proxy Amazon unveiled when it released its Kindle Fire onto the market last year. ®